Life Stress, Health, and Blood Pressure in Black College Students

Abstract

A multivariate stress and health risk model is proposed to test the contribution of stress on blood pressure in Black college students. Measures of stress reaction pattern, level of stress exposure, personal level of distress, the availability of social supports, personal and family health history, and health status were obtained from a sample of 191 Black university students. Multiple regression analyses predicting systolic and diastolic blood pressure overall and by gender supported the hypothesis that stress interacts with prior familial health history, personal health status, and level of subjective distress to predict blood pressure. Stress affected health and blood pressure differently for Black males and females.

Subjective Stress and Coping Resources Interact to Predict Blood Pressure Reactivity in Black College Students

“…Contributing to previous research (Bowen-Reid & Harrell, 2002;R. Clark & Anderson, 2001;Fontana & McLaughlin, 1998;Kohlmann, Weidner, & Messina, 1996;Myers, Bastien, & Miles, 1983;Vitaliano et al, 1995;Vogele & Steptoe, 1992), the findings from this investigation indicated that the relationship of coping resources to diastolic blood pressure reactivity varies as a function of subjective stressfulness. That is, under conditions of high stress, there appeared to be a cost associated with the use of problem-focused coping and, under conditions of low stress, the use of emotion-focused coping resources was related to more adaptive physiological changes.…”

Stress among students

“…Four years later ("The Perils of Burnout," 1987), the magazine reported that "stress is running even higher than usual at colleges this fall." A survey of undergraduate males at a midwestern university found 93 percent had experienced physical signs of stress, such as headaches, and 88 percent had experienced stressrelated feelings, such as depression (Pinch, Heck, and Vinal, 1986).…”